PANW beats and raises, Broadcom and CrowdStrike report tonight, and AMAT quietly surges 11%

Wednesday brings one confirmed beat and two major earnings after the bell — and the cybersecurity trade is working again.

Palo Alto Networks reported Q3 FY2026 results after Tuesday's close and jumped 11% in after-hours before settling closer to 3% as the earnings call wrapped up. The numbers cleared Wall Street's bar on every key line.

Note the GAAP net income line: a $177M loss versus a $262M profit in the prior-year quarter, largely reflecting acquisition costs from the CyberArk deal. The non-GAAP picture is what the market priced, and it was clean.

Guidance raised across the board. For Q4 FY2026, management guided to revenue of $3.345–$3.355B and non-GAAP EPS of $0.96–$0.98. Full-year FY2026 revenue guidance moved to $11.415–$11.425B, up from the prior range of $11.28–$11.31B. Non-GAAP EPS guidance for the full year is now $3.77–$3.79. 2

On the earnings call, CEO Nikesh Arora was direct about the AI security narrative. He argued that AI agents increase — rather than reduce — the attack surface, pushing enterprises toward platform vendors that can inspect higher data volumes: "As more traffic traverses networks, more inspection is needed. Hardware is the cheapest and fastest throughput mechanism." 2

The stock was up roughly 64% year-to-date heading into the print, following a near-60% May alone — partially driven by the IBM QRadar acquisition, the Koi Security and Portkey deals, and the NATO-Microsoft-PANW partnership announcement. The print validated those moves. One context point worth tracking: PANW shareholders have voted seven separate times against CEO Arora's compensation packages, most recently opposing his $100M package from December — votes that are non-binding, so the pay stands regardless. 2

Two of the most anticipated prints in the current cycle both land Wednesday after the close.

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Consensus has Broadcom Q2 FY2026 revenue at $22B — Broadcom's own guidance — with adjusted EBITDA margin expected to hold at 68%. Analysts see EPS growing 51.9% year-over-year to approximately $2.02. 3

Susquehanna upgraded its price target from $450 to $490 ahead of the print, citing accelerating ASIC demand and Alphabet TPU ecosystem growth. One wrinkle to watch: Anthropic's initial ~$10B TPU order is structured such that Broadcom captures chip revenue only, not rack-level revenue, trimming the fiscal 2026 AI revenue estimate from ~$62.5B to ~$55B. That's a deal-structure adjustment, not a demand signal — but it could weigh on how management frames the AI revenue trajectory. 3

Context from Q1: revenue grew 29.5% to $19.3B, with AI semiconductor revenue jumping 106% year-over-year to $8.4B. Semiconductor solutions hit $12.5B (+52% YoY) while VMware-anchored infrastructure software grew only 1.4% to $6.8B — a split worth watching again this quarter. 3

AVGO shares were already up 5.2% in Wednesday's session as investors positioned ahead of the print — hitting a new 52-week high of $488.82 intraday. The stock is up 93% over the past 52 weeks and 39% year-to-date. 42 of 42 analysts covering AVGO rate it Strong Buy or better; average price target sits at $480.49.

CrowdStrike reports Q1 FY2027, with analysts expecting revenue of approximately $1.363B — representing ~23.5% year-over-year growth — and non-GAAP EPS of $1.07. 4 The stock rallied 98% in the three months leading into this print, which compresses the upside scenario considerably. 5

Moody's upgraded CrowdStrike's credit rating earlier this year, a signal on financial durability even as the company continues working through the reputational aftermath of the 2024 software update outage. The bar for a positive market reaction is a beat-and-raise; anything short is likely to pull the stock given the run-up.

Applied Materials reported Q2 FY2026 revenue of $7.91B last week, up 11.4% year-over-year, beating estimates. 6 The print has kept the stock elevated this week, with AMAT contributing to the broader semiconductor momentum that also lifted Nvidia equipment names. AMAT is now one of the quieter beneficiaries of the AI data center build-out: equipment demand from TSMC-adjacent fabs and memory manufacturers has been durable.

Bank of America's Vivek Arya raised his Nvidia price target to $350, citing what he called an "unprecedented" chip cycle driven by agentic AI demand. 7 Piper Sandler's Thomas Champion raised his Alphabet (GOOGL) target from $425 to $445, maintaining Overweight, following signs of continued TPU-related ASIC demand from Broadcom and other chip suppliers. 8

Cisco is worth a brief mention even though the print was May 13: the stock has held and extended its 22% post-earnings gain as the market continues to re-rate legacy networking names benefiting from AI infrastructure. Cisco management flagged ~$9B in fiscal 2026 AI orders and guided at least $6B in AI revenue for FY2027. 9 That trade has more legs than the initial move suggested.

The next major macro input for the tech sector is the May jobs report, landing Friday June 6. This is the first significant labor market read under new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh, who was sworn in last month. 10 April payrolls came in at 115,000 — nearly double consensus — which left the bond market roughly unchanged on rate cut timing. A second consecutive strong read would further push back cut expectations and could create modest headwinds for high-multiple tech names at current valuations.